Reborn As A Ghost: Time To Build My Undead Army!

-----

"When I started climbing the tower, I felt lost. I wanted to find myself or die trying." Eustace started talking, as he admired the beauty of the sunlight with his soul eyes. "I always thought my life was useless, there was nothing for me anywhere, I was a good-for-nothing, and I even considered killing myself many times."

Eustace then caressed the little heads of the fairies around him, who were looking at his appearance with puppy eyes.

"But then I met my friends, we made a guild named the Crimson Tailed Foxes, we fought through trial after trial, and we explored the many worlds of the Tower." He spoke. "Until we reached Atlantis, a world of seas with islands. That's where we meet her, Naiad. She was back then merely a lost Mermaid, who had run away from her village because her people wanted to sacrifice her to some kind of Deep-Water God."

As she heard Eustace speak, Maria was left speechless. Eustace not only was an otherworldly like her, but also Naiad! Not only that, but they were not reincarnations like her, but people that just trespassed the boundaries of worlds, and walked through "the Tower" as they called it.

Her ghostly heart started beating faster as she felt the excitement of a world much larger than she could have ever hoped or imagined. Yggdrasil wasn't everything, there was a whole new horizon hidden from plain sight.

"It was love at first sight though…" Eustace laughed. "She quickly became a member of our guild. She helped us navigate across the seven dangerous seas of Atlantis, and we fought teeth and nail to survive, quest after quest, until we arrived at the Stairs leading further up. She had a wish when she started climbing the tower, to revive her beloved sister that died long ago, sacrificed to this Deep-Water God. It was one of the things that drove her to move forward. They promised us, the Administrators, that the Tower would grant us a wish when we reached the top. Although everyone had a wish, I already had my wish came true. I meet friends, and then, also fell in love with a wonderful woman. I honestly never wished for anything else in my pitiful life."

"Eustace…" Maria sighed.

"So there's something called… a Tower?" Nia didn't have any idea.

"The original inhabitants of the worlds we meet were also clueless, not all of them knew about the Tower. Usually this information was concealed from the normal public, only those that governed or became Players themselves knew." Said Eustace. "In between worlds, there are many floors that are trials where players have to compete to climb further and reach new worlds. Once we reach a new world, we must first complete quests, and later, the path to the Heavenly Stairs leading further up will be revealed to us."

"The Heavenly Stairs…" I said. "So does this mean that the otherworldly heroes, the people they summoned here, were these "Players", and they left descendants…"

"Maybe." Eustace sighed. "And well, with Naiad and my friends, we went through many adventures and hardships. Eventually, we grew weary of them, even as we grew stronger, the challenges only kept getting harder. When we eventually lost one of us, our trust was shattered, and my friends left me one after another, trying to seek a life of their own in a world we visited, or to climb the tower alone because they feared losing more of their loved ones. But Naiad, she stayed with me, no matter what."

"It was back then when I began to consider that she was following me almost blindly, because she loved me, and not because of the wish she once hoped to achieve." Eustace sighed. "I was forcing her to go through countless hardships for my own selfishness… And I couldn't bear it anymore. Once we reached Yggdrasil, I thought it was a large world, one which surely could have areas where we could live in peace, the two of us. She wanted to settle down since a while ago, but I was afraid of that."

"Eventually, we meet many people, completed quests, and saved civilians from monster floods even defeating Calamities ourselves." Eustace sighed. "Trying to find a place to belong to, a place we could call home. Eventually, we did, this place, Midgard, was all we needed. Yet… something happened. The strongest Players that dominated this world, who called themselves Aesir, decided to recruit us into their pantheon after watching our strength. We obeyed at first, thinking it was the right thing to do to secure our safety. But we were wrong… Odin was mad, and the goddess that took charge of my dear Naiad was a selfish bitch that only cared about herself. Naiad suffered below her commands. Eventually, we couldn't bear with it anymore, and escaped, desiring the freedom we once had."

"And that's when we landed here, in these deserts, isolated from the rest of the world. Naiad felt weak in these areas, but due to having evolved into a powerful Divine Mermaid Spirit, she created an Oasis where we could live… And this Oasis, it attracted many people, nomads that wandered these deserts." Eustace said with a slight smile. "Without realizing it, as many years went by, a whole town was formed around us, we had so much happiness, we had so many friends. I was finally able to live the life I always dreamed of, with my beautiful Naiad, even the desert looked like a wonderful place."

As Eustace narrated his story, more people came closer, staying in silence as they listened the old and weary soul speak, revealing to them both the truth about this world, the tower, and also his past and that of the Divine Oasis Spirit.

"But that's when he came… The Dark Pest as you call him, or as I've known him as, Yin Shang, a monstrous Demonic Sect Tyrant of the World of Murim, a Player, and the bastard that killed one of my friends." Eustace gritted his teeth, fury glowing from his eyes. "He came to hunt us down by the request of the Goddess of Water of this world, she had put a bounty on our heads."

-----